Kathrine Frich
He didn’t believe the reports and wanted to see the war with his own eyes.
The Kremlin has downplayed the scale of its invasion of Ukraine, avoiding the word “war” and branding the fighting a “special military operation.”
Critics say that language, amplified by Russian propaganda, has blurred reality far beyond Russia’s borders.
According to investigators, that confusion helped drive one foreign visitor to travel toward the front line to see the truth with his own eyes.
Journey into doubt
Polish citizen Krzysztof Galos travelled to Ukraine in April 2023 after expressing scepticism about media reports describing the war, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
Sources quoted by Memorial said Galos wanted to verify for himself whether the conflict was really taking place as described.
He crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border and drove into territories under Russian occupation.
Surveillance cameras later recorded his car near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Galos was subsequently detained at a Russian checkpoint.
Held in Taganrog
According to Memorial, Galos was taken to pre-trial detention centre No. 2 in the Russian city of Taganrog, a facility where Ukrainian prisoners of war are also held.
After contact with him was lost, his family reported him missing. For months, no official information was provided about his whereabouts.
In January 2025, Memorial published a report titled Ukraine: war crimes of Russian aggressors, documenting systematic torture in occupied territories and inside Russia.
Among the cases listed was a Polish citizen who died in Taganrog.
Torture claims
Witnesses told Memorial that Galos was regularly beaten in detention, particularly because he did not speak Russian and because of Poland’s support for Ukraine.
One respondent said Galos explained that he “had gone travelling around Ukraine to see what was going on there, but took a wrong turn and drove up to a checkpoint of Russian soldiers.”
During one inspection, guards allegedly beat him so severely that his legs turned blue and began to fail. Memorial said Galos died in mid-June 2023.
Cellmates were later forced to sign statements claiming detention centre staff “did not use” violence and that there had been no conflicts in the cell, witnesses said.
Family seeks answers
Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Russian authorities did not inform Poland of Galos’s death.
His son, Paweł, still does not know the circumstances of his father’s death or where his body is.
He has contacted Russian authorities and Polish institutions. Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the embassy in Moscow sent a diplomatic note to Russia after the case became public.
Human rights groups say the case fits a wider pattern of abuse in Russian detention facilities.
Sources: Gazeta Wyborcza, Memorial, Ukrainska Pravda.
